#52: Offline Journal Newsletter : 6 June '23
Wales photography exhibitions update
JOHN DAVIES - Landscape Show
Ffotogaleri y Gofeb in Machynlleth still have their new exhibition by respected landscape photographer John Davies on the walls but, just in case you’re planning on visiting, the gallery is closed this week and will reopen Wednesday 14 June.
THE BEAUTY OF TRUTH - POST-INDUSTRIAL WELSH LANDSCAPES
by John Davies runs ‘til 26 August 2023.
TWO BOOKS / ONE LAUNCH – EVENT
VALLEY FFOCWS Collective continue their exploration of collaborative projects incorporating photography with a (free) talk event on Wednesday 14 June at 6.45pm in the Ynysybwl Constitutional Club (4 miles north of Pontypridd).
Two publications with a focus on the site/location of the former Lady Windsor Colliery will be discussed SHIFTING GROUND by James Evans and MATTERS CONCERNING THE CREATION OF THE LADY WINDSOR COLLIERY by Paul Davies.
Shifting Ground by Evans is the second in a series of art exhibitions, each comprising six pieces of work, along the Lady Windsor Trail, Ynysybwl. Ariel photographs originally taken by the military (from planes) in pre digital times between 1945 and 1991 for information purposes, form the basis of Evan’s research of the former colliery site. The images were taken on specially designed cameras (the early cameras were mounted on the outside of planes), with large format film that gives them a quality very different from digital drone photography. They invite conversation and imagination about the industrial activities on the site; also land use and change, not only of the Former Lady Windsor Colliery site itself but also the effect the industrial process had on the surrounding area that resulted in the dramatic growth of the village of Ynysybwl.
James Evans is an archaeology and heritage consultant; he studies historic maps and aerial photography which charts a site’s land use over time. James lives in Ynysybwl and has worked on this series independently and for general information.
Matters Concerning the Creation of the Lady Windsor Colliery
A Pit and the Aristocracy by Paul Davies
Whilst the lives and struggles of mining communities across the South Wales Coal Field are well documented (as are the histories of the companies they worked for) the relation of the pits to the aristocracy; to those who owned the land and to a large extent facilitated and benefited from the Rape of the Fair Country, remains under-explored.
This small artists’ book looks at the role and fortunes of the ‘Other Windsor’ family; owners of the land supporting Barry Dock and the Lady Windsor Pit in Ynysybwl, which were developed in tandem between 1885-95. The tale turns out a quintessential exemplar of what Marshall Berman termed ‘The Tragedy of Development’.
Thirty pages with an insert of artist’s collage illustrations. Researched, written, and produced in Ynysybwl. 2023.
206mm x145 mm / 36 pp
Both books are a Valley Ffocws Project and published by Invisible Ynysybwl Interternational.
Follow Valley Ffocws on their new Twitter account @valleyffocws2
In Conversation: The Sea Horizon
With his exhibition Môrwelion/The Sea Horizon showning now until 10 September in National Museum Cardiff, artist Garry Fabian Miller will be in conversation with Martin Barnes (Senior Curator of Photography, V&A) and Bronwen Colquhoun (Senior Curator of Photography, Amgueddfa Cymru) about his life, practice and collaborations in a special event at Museum Cardiff from 2pm on Saturday 17 June 2023.
Môrwelion/The Sea Horizon will be open for those who would like to view the exhibition before the event and attendees can also enjoy music performed by Composition students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in the gallery from 1-1:45pm. These new works have been composed in response to The Sea Horizon exhibition.
The talk will be followed by a screening of five short films made by the artist in collaboration with Sam Fabian Miller.
“The films invite you to explore Garry Fabian Miller’s ‘camera-less’ practice that experiments with darkness and light, and weaves in work by the artists, writers and thinkers that have inspired him over the years, including Alice Oswald, Oliver Coates and Kathleen Francis”. – Museum Wales
Following on from his 2017 exhibition ‘A 44 Mile Radius’ at Tilt & Shift gallery in Llanrwst and ‘Ynyshir, 25 Mile Radius’ at the Workers Gallery in 2019, David Hurn returns north to Oriel Colwyn for a new exhibition ‘Colwyn Bay: 30 Mile Radius’ over three months this Summer.
The exhibition will feature forty prints selected from Hurn’s archive - images made in a thirty mile radius of Oriel Colwyn over a period of nearly fifty years. The photographer will be there for the opening on Saturday 17th June and will give a talk the following day in the gallery. More info will be shared on the event via the Oriel Colwyn website and social media channels.
I’m pleased to reveal Offline Journal has collaborated with David Hurn and Oriel Colwyn on the first of the new catalog exhibition publications announced in the latest issue #010 of Offline Journal. Limited copies of a forty-page catalog published for this exhibition will be available at Oriel Colwyn during the opening on 17 June.
More information on the show is available now on the Oriel Colwyn website.
www.orielcolwyn.org
NEW FFOTON CONVERSATION
Ffoton Wales are underway with a new series of photographer conversations around Wales - the latest being Cardiff-based advertising and product photographer Gabriella Jackson.
You can listen to Gabriella’s story of her professional career to date (and taking on a new studio space during the Covid pandemic!) on the Ffoton website, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.